Lassoing live animals from a horse with a rope is a difficult task and requires a great deal of practice. The lasso or lariat must be formed as a large loop and accurately tossed so as to encircle the animal. If the throw is accurate, and the rope held taut it constricts around the roped animal. A lariat includes a relatively small loop, referred to as a honda, at one end of the rope. The rope passes through the honda to form a large loop which is the lariat. The conventional honda is formed by hand tying a small length of the rope into an eye.
When practicing roping with or without a live animal, the time it takes to open and release the lariat is inconvenient. If the practice object is a live animal, tension from the hand held end of the rope will first tighten the lariat, and then stop the animal when the rope has been fully extended. This jerks the animal. Animals soon learn to avoid this disagreeable jerk at the end of the rope and will often refuse to leave a chute or stop as soon as they feel the lariat around their necks. Aside from these inconveniences, hand removal of the lariat exposes the cowboy to the physical risk of being gored or stomped.
A honda breakaway can solve these problems by opening the honda, and the lariat as well, upon the application of a predetermined pull force. A honda breakaway alleviates the need to physically stop the lassoed animal, dismount and then manually remove the tightened lariat. A breakaway enables the honda and the lariat to be opened from a distance.
Rudolph U.S. Pat. No. 2,530,031 discloses a two piece honda breakaway designed to provide the desired feel and balance of a conventional lasso. To form the honda with this breakaway, two lengths of rope are required, one length that is hand held in forming the lariat and another shorter length that is used to form the honda. A rope end from each of the two lengths is telescopically extended into connectable ends of the two-piece breakaway and the shorter length rope is secured to the longer rope in some other manner to enclose the honda.
At least two disadvantages are presented by this two piece breakaway construction, i.e., the requirement that two separate lengths of rope are needed and the two-piece construction of the breakaway itself. Although one rope could be cut to provide the two sections, this practice results in undesired fraying and eventually a rope that is too short in length to be of practical use. With respect to the breakaway, the two piece honda construction is disadvantageous because either of separable pieces can be lost or misplaced, thus rendering the other piece useless.
Rowbury U.S. Pat. No. 3,716,031 discloses a two piece quick release lariat honda formed from a tongue part and an eye mounting socket part. The socket part is formed integrally from a single piece of cast, machined metal, and is therefore heavier than a conventional lasso. Similarly, Hoody U.S. Pat. No. 2,592,696 discloses a one piece noose releasing honda that is relatively bulky compared to a conventional honda lariat. Honda breakaways such as these do not adequately simulate the weight and feel of a conventional honda.
It is thus desirable to provide a breakaway honda for use in lassoing practice that enables a cowboy to open the lariat and honda without having to dismount and physically untie the rope, yet is not susceptible to disadvantages of prior two piece or bulky breakaway constructions.